Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Crime and punishment-Convicts on the death row in Karnataka

This is the second in the
series of Crime and Punishment. The first part was published on Tuesday.

The rejection of the mercy
petition of four Veerappan associates currently housed in the death row cells in
the Hindalga jail in Belgaum, Karnataka, is likely to send shivers down the
spines of other prisoners on the death row,

As of now, there are 64 convicts,
including two women, who are waiting for their turn to be hanged. These 64 are
from all parts of the State and all of them have been shifted to the Hindalga
Jail the day the Sessions Court which heard their cases awarded death
sentences.

This is one of the exclusive
and little known procedures followed by Jail authorities in Karnataka. The
moment a Sessions Court pronounces a death sentence, he or she is automatically
shifted to the Hindalga Jail. This is because this is the only jail in
Karnataka to have gallows and the only designated place where convicts are
hanged.

A few decades ago, Bangalore was the only
other place where hangings took place. The gallows today are part of the FreedomPark and I am quite amazed to see people sit on the
platform housing the gallows and eating tidbits. Are they not aware that they
are sitting on a human graveyard where several scores people have been hanged.

Anyway back to the Hindalga jail.
The prisoners on the death row have the option of appealing to the Karnataka
High Court and from there to the Supreme Court and finally the President of
India. Till the disposal of their petition, they are settled in an exclusive cell
meant to house such convicts.

As of now, 64 prisoners,
including two women, who have been sentenced to death are awaiting their turn
at the gallows. Hindalga Central Jail.
At least

40 of them have been on death
row for more than 10 to 15 years. The convicts include four associates of the
forest

brigand Veerappan, namely
Gnanaprakasham, Simon, Meesekara Madaiah and Bilavendra whose mercy petitions have
been rejected by the President of India. These four were involved in

the Palar blasts in 1993, in
which 21 policemen were killed and 27 policemen injured. The two women
prisoners are Laxmamma of the Dandupalya gang, and serial killer Cyanide
Mallika. In Malika’s case, the Karnataka High Court modified her death sentence
and commuted it to life imprisonment.

Among the 62 are 38 who have
been made to wait to know their fate for periods ranging from ten to fifteen years
since their sentence. Of these 38, mercy petitions of six, including the
associates of Veerappan (now rejected), have been pending with the President of
India since 2004, two with the Governor of Karnataka, twenty appeals in
Karnataka High Court, one in the Supreme Court and nine in the Dharwad circuit
bench of the High Court.

The last convict to be hanged
in Hindalga was in November 1983 when Hanumant Malla. He had murdered five
persons. Since then there had not been a single execution in Karnataka. The
hangman then too has retired from service.

The prisoners on the death
row in the hail, built by the British in 1923, are permitted to move about freely
in an enclosure around the cells from 6.30 am to 8 am, from 10 am to noon and 4
pm to 6.30 pm.

All these prisoners are
looked after well. They are also provided with newspapers and books.

The prison is a huge building
and the jail premises covers 99 acres. It houses 857 inmates, including 388
under trials. It has 40 women, 17 convicts and 23 under trials.

The prison has three gallows
and three persons can be hanged simultaneously.

Allopathy or the modern system of medicine labels it calls it degenerative and often fatal disorder. It says there is no known effective ...

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